€465,000 period Cork harbour home is better than new

A house that lingered unloved for years has finally reached its stunning potential, writes Tommy Barker. Pictures: John Finn.

Rushbrooke, Cobh, Great Island
Price: €465,000
Size: 207 sq m (2,230 sq ft)
Bedrooms: 5
Bathrooms: 3
BER: Exempt
Best Feature: top to toe restoration of 1850s home

IT is almost 11 years, to the day, that No 2 Norwood Villas first surfaced in Irish Examiner Property, a week before Christmas 2008, when it was kindly described as “a worthy original”, yet a do-er upper, in need of updating work on just about every front.

Back in December ’08, it had carried a guide price of €575,000 for the vendors — four siblings who had inherited — and, as the Irish property market was starting into its decline and slump, it’s hardly surprising no-one came forward to buy this unlived-in home at that level and to spend heavily on its after that.

In fact, it lingered for six more years on the market, occasionally resurfacing with a price ‘adjustment,’ awaiting its fuller, and obvious potential.

It eventually sold, in 2015, to a young couple one of whom had local Cobh town roots, who had enquired every now and then as to its condition and status.

Bravely, the couple who have backgrounds broadly in the engineering sector, bought it (a Price Register search shows No 2 making €260,000) and the long haul of renovations and upgrades began.

It took, in all, about 18 months, and they didn’t skimp. In their favour was the fact it has all of its original, period Victorian features and joinery intact, and at some time in quite recent decades it had been reroofed, so the worst horrors of a vacant house open to the elements was avoided.

Since taking it in hand, they’ve learned about its every square and cubic foot (it’s got 11’ high ceilings, so lots of space!), have earthed much of its history, and even met a previous occupant, a woman now aged in her 70s whose family had lived here up to 1950 and who had emigrated to New Zealand.

On the woman’s first return to Ireland, she had knocked on the door of No 2, post-renovation, got a grand tour, and told stories of her childhood memories there, much to the wonder of its current family of residents, including three children.

Going back even further, the 1901 Census showed the occupants of this Norwood Villas home to be a family called Write, of two adults, two children, a governess and a stated religion of Church of England.

A decade later, the 1910 Census had as occupants the Roman Catholic Dinan family, with nine children, governess and other servants, with a total of 16 residents there the night of that head-count.

No 2 was the last of the four 1850s-built semis, or couplets, built on Fota Estate / Smith Barry lands in this prime, quiet spot up above Rushbrooke and the commuter rail station with engaging harbour views and vistas, to be renovated.

No 1 (its ‘other half’) had sold in 2005, for an unconfirmed €650,000, and the super-smart No 1 (owned at one stage by the artist Philip Grey) sold again in 2017 for €580,000, according to the Price Register, which also shows No 4 Norwood Villas making €455,000 that same year, 2017.

Now, in pristine, walk-in order, No 2 is back on the market, utterly transformed, yet with huge integrity and respect for its heritage and period authenticity, and is priced at €465,000 by estate agent Lawrence Sweeney of Savills, who has had a good run of Cobh high-end homes on his books this year (and, in Cork City, he’s run off his feet with viewings of the 1830s era 2,500 sq ft five-bed No 3 Harbour View by St Luke’s Cross on Summerhill North, guiding €575,000, with viewers there also impressed by the fact that that style-savvy mid-terraced period buy at No 3 has been fully renovated.)

Of Rushbrooke’s No 2 Norwood Villas, Mr Sweeney notes “this fine historic dwelling has been carefully restored, above and beyond its former glory. There are many modern conveniences you would expect of a new home, making this property completely ready for the 21st century”.

Almost frustratingly, because No 2 is a protected structure, there was no need for a BER to be done, so there’s no ‘before’ and ‘after’ rating to compare and get approval from.

It would certainly have been a G, if tested prior to works: now, it could even be a high ‘B’,’ at an entirely unscientific guess.

At No 2, the ground floor’s original pine-board suspended floors where lifted, with rigid insulation installed underneath by the joists.

The old pine floorboards were then skillfully refitted, sanded and lacquered to a high gloss, for a stunning immediate welcome from the hall door inwards, and through the principal rooms, one front, one behind, and they are linked by refurbished slidingoriginal ‘pocket’ doors.

Then, the original kitchen floor and small adjacent breakfast room at the front of No 2 were opened one to another for a 20’ x 11’ kitchen/diner with island, and floors dug-out, to be replaced with new insulated floors done, the owners say, to modern passive standard.

Similarly, when they tore down and replaced the rear sculleryannexe, they also did high-grade floor insulation, and now this modern rear ‘service’ wing has a large utility, back hall with garden access, and a guest WC and set up for a shower.

This back section has an all-new roof, an An Taisce-approved triple-glazing in a sash window configuration done by Munster Joinery, who also provided the new Ultra Tech external doors.

Elsewhere, around the front and across the window bays, windows including some behind gothic arches, and arched themselves, were skillfully matched and hand-made by a craftsman, in mahogany, with ultra-thin yet effective gas-filled double glazing.

The matching was decreed because of No 2’s protected status, and also then reinstated in some sections were small pieces of coloured glass in the top of the gothic arches, with French doors from the main, 16’ x 14’ front room, then the grounds.

No 2’s external walls have been fitted with 100m of rigid insulation board on their internal side, and the attic too in this two-storey Victorian home has bumped-up insulation, with Stira access, so the overall sensation is of a snug-as-a-bug home, with 170-year pedigree.

The good work doesn’t stop there.

The family home has been fully rewired and replumbed with gas-fired and zoned central heating, replacing an older kerosene boiler, with resized rads and an attic plumbed for solar panels.

As it now stands, there’s a pressurised plumbing system with 1000lt water tank, serving one en suite bedroom, the main family contemporary-style bathroom with bath (the big, old cast iron original bath is now in the garden!) and separate shower, and there’s plumbing provision for a ground floor shower in the guest WC.

On the electrical front, it’s all been rewired, with lamp circuits on dimmer switches in the living rooms, it’s wired with Cat 5 cabling, and broadband and wifi.

Several of the first floor’s five bedrooms have original fireplaces (not used), there’s an open fire in the rear 16’ x 15’ living room, while the even more elegant front sitting room (with bay window and fea

ture stained glass inserts) has a fitted multi-fuel stove, with vermiculite-lined flue. Both linked rooms have reinstated ceiling plasterwork, and centre roses.

Overall, the semi-detached No 2 has 2,230 sq ft over its two levels, with distinctive gable front and gabled porch wing alongside, and the ornate replacement bargeboards or fascias are a match for the originals, done in cedar by a joinery firm in Waterford, and painted.

All done, top-to-toe and with its new back wing warm to the back, it stands on 0.3 of an acres of redone gardens, slightly sloping and south-aspected with some old maple/acers front and back, while the new landscaping saw 140 tonnes of earth imported, hedging planted, new borders and kerbing, gate and borders, new pillars, boundary wall, and rear patio and steps, with Indian limestone flag stones.

Oh, and there’s also a detached garage, home to the massive water tank among other necessities and assorted paraphernalia.

First viewings were booked in at the rigorously refurbished No 2 Norwood Villas (the spec list of jobs tackled runs to over 50 items of note) for this week just ending, with the first Christmas decorations also going up in a timely fashion for this most family-friendly of homes.

The hospitable vendors have another project in mind, keen to stay in the Great Island vicinity, and leaving with a justifiably strong sense of pride in a job well done.

Savills estate agent Lawrence Sweeney notes too the proximity of the commuter rail station (a five-minute walk from here) as well as the provision of shops, schools and other services, and even the town’s swimming pool, not to mind its maritime facilities and history.

Having brought two quite large detached period Cobh homes to the market in the past six months, Mr Sweeney reckons up to 50% of viewers of that duo were from outside the Cobh catchment, with quite a few too from further afield than Cork, with the attractions being Cobh’s harbour heritage, the quality of many period properties and their relative affordability, as well as commute options.

Then, almost as an aside, this new-to-market, late-year arrival has the requisite southerly aspect, bright setting and inner and wider harbour views, spanning Monkstown toward Ringaskiddy and Haulbowline, and even glimpses of Roches Point at the very mouth of Cork Harbour, best seen from the smallest front bedroom/home office, and likely to be a constant day and night time distraction.

VERDICT: It’s still rare to get a Cobh period home redone to this high standard — it’s got the comforts of ‘new’, in a build that has already stood the test of generations ... none of whom were as comfortably ensconced as its next owners will be, post-2020.